Rutina and Adina ( Tara and her Mom ) were both nominated for this - you can also still vote for them. CELEBRATES THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF BLACK WOMEN IN FILM, TELEVISION AND MEDIA.The award rewards those women who use their craft to help combat negative stereotyping of Black women around the world.Unlike most awards, the Tressies are judged by the general public and an invited jury of peers.

Jerk and I have been catching up with True Blood over the past week and I think it’s fair to say we’ve both fallen in love. One of the things that really got me was Sookie and Bill’s theme.

Nothing cinches a moment like a great theme, be it musical or visual that brings you back to a feeling, a history and a place every time you hear it. True Blood’s stepped up to the table and brought their game face with this one. You can hear it just about anytime they kiss. It comes in like a haunting clockwork. Of course the music geek in me couldn’t let this go at just that. That’s right, you’ve heard that theme before.

I agree with Keyyl over at Thinking from my own perspective who wrote this week "Sookie Stackhouse is one of the most creative, airheadish, strongest, and exciting characters ever. She's one of those people I'd love to actually meet and hang out with or just chat with over a good microbrew."

This feeling was confirmed this week when Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, speaking in Houston, said that Sookie was her favorite character. Charlaine said " I love living with Sookie. She’s a lot of fun. And I’ve gotten to know her very well now so that I‘ll know what she’ll do in any given circumstance; so she’s a lot of fun"

There has been some concern expressed amongst fans, both online and at the Charlaine Harris event at the Houston Library, that Sookie is not being portrayed the same way in the TV series as she has been by Ms. Harris in the Sookie books. That the “strong, caring, sensible" young woman is being significantly changed by the True Blood writers and this is not sitting well with the fans. No matter what the wonderful adventures are, or how fabulous, dangerous and mysterious the ‘supes’ are in the stories, or even how amazing her choice is between hunky vamp boyfriends -this series is about Sookie and we are all, at heart, big fans of Sookie.

Again, Charlaine from this weeks Houston event “I love what Anna’s done with the character. But, it’s true that Sookie, the way she’s written in the show, is a little bit different. She loses her temper more quickly than my Sookie--it seems to me. But I love what Anna is doing with it and I think she’s really inhabited that character and I’ve really enjoyed that a lot.”

Anna is doing a great job inhabiting the Sookie character, but she doesn’t write what the character says, nor does she decide on the actions or expressions used in any scene. She just does the acting, it’s up to Alan Ball and the incredible writing team to keep Sookie true to the wonderful character that has been winning over fans for almost ten years.

I wrote a little about this in a recent post, where I wrote about what I wanted to see in True Blood Season 2, and I listed some of the Sookie characteristics that I wanted the show writers to remember when they write for her. you can read it here.

But I recently found that an even more important person ( Yes , more important than the fans or even Charlaine Harris ) has also listed the Sookie characteristics that the True Blood writers need to keep in mind when they write for Sookie in Season 2 and beyond.

I would also like to remind them that this is someone you REALLY DO NOT want to cross.

In the 4th Sookie Stackhouse book entitled , Dead to the World Eric says to Sookie ...

"You are beautiful."“You are smart and you are loyal""You have a sense of fun and adventure."“You're brave.""You're responsible and hardworking,""You have the most beautiful breasts I've ever seen. “"You're creative, too."

Of course, he had to put in the ‘best breast’ part.

He’s right ( of course, he is ) that these ARE the characteristics that are so important to the Sookie character …

It was an easy call to pick up HBO's vampire series True Blood for a second season, Sue Naegle, the network's president of entertainment, told SCI FI Wire.

HBO ordered a second season of True Blood early on in the show's premiere run. "We had seen the episodes and read all the scripts," Naegle said in an exclusive interview on Friday in Universal City, Calif., after HBO's presentation at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour. "We loved it and believed in it, and we knew we would want to do a second season. So it was an easy decision."

Following is the rest of our interview with Naegle.

What do you expect is in store for the next season?

Naegle: I'll never tell.

No, no spoilers. Just impressions.

Naegle: Vampires.

Do you see it taking more inspiration from Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books or taking off on its own?

Naegle: We use the books as a starting out point. It's a combination. I really can't tell [you any more.]

Would you be raising the budget or putting more behind it?

Naegle: Well, we love the show, and we support the show to the same degree that we did the first year. It was a beautiful production design and a healthy budget, so it's the same.

Three's Company: Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Bill (Stephen Moyer) will wing it to Dallas, where they'll assist the local bloodsuckers in locating their MIA sheriff. But the couple's bigger problem may be their new third wheel, the irritating Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). ''She's part of their life now,'' says Ball. ''Bill made her; he's responsible for her.''

Diff'rent Strokes: The question of who — or what — Maryann (Michelle Forbes) is will play out, and the answer doesn't lie in Charlaine Harris' books. ''She's a new kind of supernatural creature.''

Dead Like Me: ''I can't tell you if Lafayette [played by Nelsan Ellis] will be back,'' says Ball, adding ominously, ''He did die in the books.'' He will reveal that Lois Smith's Gran returns in flashbacks.

Highway to Heaven: Sookie's sex-obsessed bro, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), will get mixed up with the nefarious Fellowship of the Sun. ''He realizes something's missing in his life,'' says Ball. Aside from his pants?

Interesting review from Racy Romance, I loved her description of Hotshot "I loved the introduction of the Hotshot shifter community. Basically, it’s Deliverance meets The Munsters."

In each Southern Vampire Mystery, heroine Sookie Stackhouse deals with a threat to a loved one while being drawn in to some larger intrigue in the paranormal community. In Dead to the World, it’s her randy brother Jason who has gone missing, while an ambitious coven of vamp-blood drinking witches, some of them Weres, have come to town. These two plot lines are equally strong, and are weaved together in a satisfying way in DTTW.

DTTW opens with a naked Eric Northman crossing Sookie’s path as she drives home from work at Merlotte’s bar. Eric’s memory has been wiped by a witch, and Sookie agrees to hide him in her home. Normally, Eric is ruthless, self-interested, ambitious, power-hungry, confident to the point of conceit, and morosely funny. I found it remarkable how Harris was able to write Eric in this book: somehow all of those characteristics were transformed into their begin variations. He was still Eric, yet … not.

Here’s an example. The coven has come looking for Eric, and Sookie has rushed home to tell Eric to hide: “You advise me to hide? To get back in that black hole below your house?” He sounded uncertain, but it was clear to me his pride was piqued.

Before A-listers will sit down for the Golden Globe awards dinner on Sunday (prime tenderloin of beef and poached pear organic salad will be on the menu), you can bet your life many will consult their lucky stars in the morning. And exactly what signs dominated the individual achievement nominations? We broke down every category with the signs of the nominated performers and directors. Leos convincingly dominated with 17 nods, followed by Rams with 9, and Bulls and Geminis in 7. Cancers actually were tied for the lead in film categories with 5 mentions mostly thanks to achievements of Meryl Streep but failed to score any TV acting nominations and became the only sign to be shut out of the tube awards. Below is the complete list of astrologically inclined nominations along with the highlighted favorites for your viewing pleasures this weekend. Though anything goes at the Globes.

I think there is a resurgence in 70's hairstyles especially for men , but I think it's more than just from Mad Men -there is also the hit new show, Life on Mars and then there is is True Blood , which has Bill sporting long sideburns and Eric's long hair, they are also a flashback to popular 70's styles ( by way of the U.S. Civil War and the Viking Age of one thousand years ago, of course )

By James R. Sanders Inquirer Staff Writer

It's easy to be confused. Whether he's riding a bus, shopping at the market or dancing at a club, your fellow man may prompt you to ask, "What decade is this?"

Back by popular demand, men's hairstyles of the '60s and '70s - two very different looks - have returned. For those of you who can't remember, that's the shaggy, I-can't-see-your-eyes look or the clean-cut shorter styles of the ever popular Mad Men.

Read on http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090107_Trim_away_the_decades.html

HBO's juicy new vampire drama bit into our consciousness in a big way in 2008. Scoring two Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series and Best Actress (Anna Paquin), this fiendishly good romp in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana kicked the Globes' usual contenders to the curb. And why not? Hot vampire hunks, the luscious heroine Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin), earthlings and bloodsucklings getting it on...Yes, all that bloody good tomfoolery hooked viewers and Globe voters, leaving them hungry for more. Sink your teeth into that, you snubbed thespians on "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy!"

CHICAGO – At least one “Web site technician” for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) revealed a secret crush on Anne Hathaway’s lead role in “Rachel Getting Married” when the worker “randomly” awarded the actress an early Golden Globe two days before the official NBC telecast.

For a very short period of time, a star was noticed indicating Hathaway as the winner on the official Web site of the Golden Globes for her against-type role as a recovering junkie in “Rachel Getting Married”.

If the star stands, she’d best a powerhouse of other actresses in the lead-actress category including Angelina Jolie for “Changeling,” Meryl Streep for “Doubt,” Kristin Scott Thomas for “I’ve Loved You So Long” and Kate Winslet for “Revolutionary Road”.

Quickly after the snafu went public, the HFPA posted the following whoopsie notice on Jan. 9, 2008 on its Web site:

In the process of preparing for Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, a technician working on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Web site made a mistake and a name of a nominee was randomly marked as a winner. The mistake was immediately corrected.

The ballots are tabulated by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP. Only four executives of the accounting firm know the identity of the winners before the envelopes are opened and recipients are announced during the live telecast.

No one else – including the members of the HFPA – knows who the winners are prior to the live announcement.

The 66th-annual Golden Globes will air on NBC at 8 p.m. EST on Jan. 11, 2009. The full official list of Golden Globe nominees can be found below.